HGG Community Forums

That’s a great idea, I’m so curious as I could not find much info googling it

As someone who breeds majority of dun horses, I can say for certainty that flaxen does affect red duns. It might not be as striking of a color difference with dun being a dilution and therefore the body being lighter than a chestnut, however it is there. It's more obvious on a dun with darkening genes, however it's way more obvious on a dark liver chestnut since those have a darker body color.

MissKitty, if you do a search for red-based duns without flaxen, you will see a big difference and also help train your eye to spot the difference. In addition to what Obsidian, Kam, and Ammit have said on the support board, it is also helpful to keep in mind that dun itself is a dilution gene which along with other "trademarks", serves to lighten the coat. A lightened coat color may not necessarily show the contrast of a flaxen mane as well as a non diluted coat would. Flaxen and dun also have shade differences depending on other modifiers that may be present and is also a reason why 2 horses with the exact same set of genotypes may have different coloring when compared.

Gryphon summarized the rest perfectly and I just saw her comment so haha I wont blather on and on about that.